Thursday, August 07, 2008

19:30 Barrow v Oxford Utd, Blue Square Premier, Setanta Sports 1Setanta have reduced the number of live Blue Square games this season. This is possibly because of poor ratings or because they've got other football to show instead. Either way you get the impression that they're getting their trip to Barrow out of the way early in the season.

Saturday

11:30 Urawa Reds v Kashiwa Reysol, J-League, British Eurosport 2Sixth place Kashiwa will go level on points with their opponents in second if they win. Say whatever you like about the J-League, this game will be much better than the Everton v PSV game later on.

12:30 Falkirk v Rangers, Scottish Premier League, Setanta Sports 1The Gers haven't even kicked a ball in the SPL and they're already out of the Champions League. Falkirk will be thinking that anything FBK Kaunas can do, they can do just as well. They won't though.

12:45 Birmingham City v Sheffield Utd, Championship, Sky Sports 2 / Sky Sports HD2The Championship gets underway with what should be a cracking encounter. The Blades would have wished last season could have gone on for a couple more games as Kevin Blackwell had them going really well at the end. If they can carry on where they left off, they'll be strong play-off contenders.

22:10 Flamengo v Atletico, Brazilian Campeonatos, SportsXchangeAs Mr Burns once said "Who the Devil are you?" SportsXchange are a free to air channel on the Sky Digital platform who have bought the rights to the Brazilian Serie A. Good for them. Flamengo will be looking to make up some ground on the leader Gremio... at least that’s what it says here.

Sunday

12:30 Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premier League, Setanta Sports 1A quick start to the campaign could be all the more crucial to the Bhoys given Rangers fragility. Paisley's finest finished third from bottom last season so shouldn't prove too much of a test to the Champions at home.

13:15 Nottingham Forest v Reading, Championship, Sky Sports 2 / Sky Sports HD2Forest's history means they probably have a large TV audience. Consequently we may well see them on TV a lot now they're back from their sojourn in the lower leagues. Reading are Reading: Plucky and brave in the Premier League, Berkshire backwater in the Championship. Harsh but fair.

15:00 Manchester Utd v Portsmouth, Community Shield, Setanta SportsThe traditional curtain raiser to the season (I've always wanted to write that) has moved to Setanta along with the FA Cup. Join John Champion and Craig Burley pretending to be Martin Tyler and Andy Gray at 3pm for all the action. Or watch a movie instead, that’s what I normally do for this game.

20:00 Botafogo v Palmeiras, Brazilian Campeonatos, SportsXchangeDoes anyone have a copy of World Soccer I can borrow?